24 alumna Reiko Aylesworth is leaving the beaches of Hawaii (and her stint on TV’s Lost?) and moving her fine self to the streets of New York, for she will go to work on the third season of F/X’s Damages.

Details about Aylesworth’s recurring character are being kept under wraps, natch, so I guess we’ll have to wait until January to see if she’s friend or foe to Glenn Close’s Patty Hewes.

The actress joins a third-season cast that also includes new series regulars Campbell Scott and Martin Short, as well as special guest stars Lily Tomlin and Keith Carradine.

I think Hugh Jackman wants us to know he’s the hardest-working man in showbiz.

Not only is he brighting up the Great White Way with Daniel Craig these days, but now he’s in negotiations to star in – Shirtlessness Alert! – the boxing film Real Steel. Shawn Levy (Night at the Museum) is on board to direct.

Jackman would play a former fighter who earns his keep as a promoter of Robot Boxing after the human version of the sport is outlawed.

One of Hollywood’s power couples, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith, is set to co-host the 16th annual Nobel Peace Prize Concert on Dec. 11 in Norway.

Wyclef Jean, Toby Keith, and Donna Summer will be among the featured performers at the concert. More names will be added in the coming weeks.

Said the Smiths in a statement, “The opportunity to recognize the laureate’s contributions to the world peace movement will be an awe-inspiring experience. We are both humbled and honored to take part in the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this year, and look forward to sharing the historic evening with artists and humanitarians from across the globe.”

People like to say that it isn’t so much about quantity but quality – but people who say so say so just about anything.

And clearly, those people hadn’t quite anticipated or even known to anticipate Madonna’s Celebration, the Queen of Pop’s third greatest hits album out today.

Filled with almost 40 of the best of from M’s decades-spanning, hits-filled career, covering everything from “Like a Virgin” to “4 Minutes,” Celebration also includes two new tracks, “Celebration” and “Revolver”, featuring Lil Wayne, that are an acquired taste (the latter more so than the former, though).

An iTunes premium version of the album includes a bonus third new track called “It’s So Cool” that I really like.

The work they produced is oh-so-good, and Martin reportedly regrets giving Imbruglia one of the tracks (“Fun”). He like, so wishes he’d kept it for a future Coldplay album.

“A bit annoyingly we’ve given her the best Coldplay song of all time,” Martin joked to an Australian newspaper last spring. “But because we’re off-cycle we can’t do it ourselves. Half of me wishes we still had it. But she sounds f---ing brilliant on it. I think she has a very unique talent and an incredibly unique voice.”

I’m listening the track as I type this...and I’m totally loving it. It definitely sounds quite Coldplay, but Imbruglia does sing it beautifully.

And I’m completely liking the album’s lead single, “Want.” I can’t wait to hear more.

Thursday, September 24, 2009

So last week, four out of the five Spice Girls – all but Posh – got together to have dinner, right.

Faster than you could think it, the press started speculating that another reunion may be in the works.

While Ginger (Geri Halliwell) has confirmed that the girls are, indeed, working on something, Scary Spice (Mel B) tweeted today that it’s not what people are guessing...that it’s not a gig at the World Cup.

“World cup! wow the press are soo silly no I am not getting the girls together for the world cup!!!” she said. “We are getting together for other reasons!”

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Paging Dr. Grey’s...Baby

So while I was on my way to New York, Grey’s Anatomy star Ellen Pompeo and her husband, Chris Ivery, were announcing the birth of their daughter, Stella Luna Pompeo Ivery, born on Sept. 15 in Los Angeles.

Update: In other Hollywood-baby news, Jude Law also welcomed a bundle of joy, his fourth (a girl named Sophia), recently, on Sept. 22, actually.

This better not mean he’ll take the night off and not perform Hamlet on Broadway tonight.... A couple of friends got us tickets, and we will all be very disappointed if we have to watch an understudy, whom I’m sure rocks, for more than three hours.

Production on Burlesque, which was announced over the summer, is set to begin rolling in December, and Gigandet sounds excited about it.

“It’s about a girl from the Midwest who moves out to Los Angeles to pursue her career as a singer,” he said. “Obviously, it’s Christina Aguilera, so she has an amazing voice. She finds a club run by Cher, a burlesque club. And she takes it to a whole new level and, of course, meets me – the love of her life.”

The actor will play a struggling piano player working as a bartender at Cher’s burlesque club. But will he sing with Aguilera?

“Oh right, a duet with me and Christina?” he said laughing. “That would be like Kermit the Frog and Christina. I can’t sing.”

But obviously, you could look hot trying, Cam.

Photo: GossipTeen.com.

Update: Stanley Tucci also has joinedBurlesque, which actually will start shooting on Nov. 9 for a Thanksgiving 2010 release.

It was the headline The CW had been dying to write: “The bitch is back!”

The network confirmed today that Heather Locklear will appear as Amanda Woodward on its struggling-ish reboot of Melrose Place on Nov. 17. “We’re ecstatic to have the chance to bring her back to Melrose Place,” said executive producers Todd Slavkin and Darren Swimmer.

“Heather’s involvement in the show is something we’ve been working on for some time as we couldn’t imagine creating and producing this show without [her] iconic character’s inclusion.”

Locklear joined the original Melrose Place toward the end of its first season as a “special guest star,” a.k.a. a last-ditch effort to hike up the ratings (surely her hiked-up hemlines had something to do with that).

Since the actress still looks quite banging, something tells me this will be a case of a little bit of history repeated.

Photo: AuFeminin.com. Update:Word on the street is Heather Locklear will play Ella’s (Katie Cassidy) boss at the PR firm where she works. I can’t wait to see Amanda school that little wannabitch but good.

Monday, September 21, 2009

The musi-com originally had received a 13-episode order from the network, but after seeing the show perform solidly, Fox decided to pick up its back-nine option and bring the total number of first-season episodes to a full 22.

Last May, Adrian Pasdar of TV’s Heroes arrived on South Beach to perform with Band From TV (a charity cover band that also features co-star Greg Grunberg, Desperate Housewives’ Teri Hatcher and James Denton, super-cutie patootie Jesse Spencer from House and former Bachelor Bob Guiney) at the Shore Club.In an interview for Miami Living’s August issue out now, Pasdar revealed to me that he would be very much a part of Heroes’ fourth season premiering tonight, especially now that he is taking on more than just one character.Ish.(Last season, Pasdar’s character, Nathan, died, in an all-out fight with Sylar, the badass played by Zachary Quinto, who was then mind-tricked into Nathan’s body and made to believe he is Nathan.)“It’s going to be a tug of war between my character and Zach’s,” Pasdar said. “I can’t say much about it, but it’s really dynamic how they’re writing the storyline. At times it’ll be more Nathan, and other times it’ll be more Sylar. It’s about control and the duality of mankind – good and evil. That sort of thing.“It’s a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde kinda thing.”Sounds good, does it not?I mean, anything that keeps Pasdar on TV will do in my book.

Desmond Harrington, a.k.a., Jack Bass, Chuck’s handsome, if sketchy uncle on TV’s Gossip Girl, is headed back to the Upper East Side later this season.

“I will be back this year,” the actor said. “I think it’s episode 15 or 16 where I show back up. It’s fun playing Uncle Jack. He’s evil.”

Last we saw Jack, he tried to attack Lily van der Woodsen (Kelly Rutherford), who had taken over Bass Industries for Chuck. Jack was then sent packing back to Australia with a sore jaw after being punched by Chuck.

The 61st Annual Emmys Awards offered up a few surprises when all the envelopes were opened – but not in the biggest categories of them all.

Once again, defending champs 30 Rock was named Best Comedy (yay!), while Mad Men picked up the award for Best Drama.

In her acceptance speech, 30 Rock mastermind Tina Fey thanked NBC for keeping the show on the air, even though, it’s more expensive than a talk show (yeah, she means you and your big bag of taking time off primetime, Jay Leno).

For a complete list of winners, click here, but know that I was thrilled to see Michael Emerson, a.k.a. Lost’s duplicitous Ben, win in the best supporting actor in a drama category.

As expected, last night’s Emmy Awards red carpet was a glamour extravaganza, but if asked I’d say my pick for best dressed would be Mad Men’s January Jones (pictured at right), whose Atelier Versace dress was giving serious Deco.

A close second would be Ginnifer Goodwin (HBO’s Big Love), simply adorable in purple YSL dress (loving her new pixie haircut, too).

Director Steven Soderbergh, well…OK, the trailer for his latest, The Informant!, would have you believe that the movie is a non-stop hoot and a half.

It’s not.

Matt Damon packed on the pudge to play Mark Whitacre, the star of this story, based on a tattle-tale, about a whistleblower at an agri-industry giant. (Whitacre was, in fact, the highest-ranking corporate whistleblower in U.S. history.)

Too bad for Damon that his award-baiting commitment to the movie (exemplified by the 30 lbs. that cover his hot Jason Bourneness) probably will be overlooked by audiences since The Informant! is the sleepiest movie I’ve seen in a while, one that only wakes up in its last 30 minutes.

Seriously, whomever cut the trailer did the movie a tremendous disservice because what is promised and what is delivered are two very different things. Having said that, though, Damon’s phenomenal.

His character’s a deceiving mofo, and anyone who saw The Talented Mr. Ripley knows that the actor can pull off that quality phenomenally. This time around, comedy’s been added to the mix, so Damon shines. But, he wasn’t quite enough to reconcile the fact that the expectation I had for this movie was hardly met. Yes, this is a movie for grown-ups, as he recently told Letterman. Hearing him say that I couldn’t help but wonder if he knew something is not gelling with the movie….

But, anyway, if you decide to go see The Informant!, know that it’s about a man, a rising star at Archer Daniels Midland (ADM), who suddenly turns whistleblower.

That even as he exposes the company’s multi-national price-fixing conspiracy to the FBI, he envisions himself being hailed as a hero and handed a promotion. And that before any of that can actually happen, the FBI needs evidence, so he agrees to wear a wire and carry a hidden tape recorder in his briefcase, imagining himself as a kind of de facto secret agent.

“[I’m] Mark Whitacre, secret agent. 0014,” he says with the straightest of faces. “Because I’m twice as smart as 007.”

Not!

Indeed, he isn’t, which is unfortunate for the FBI, especially once they learn that their main witness hasn’t been quite so forthcoming about helping himself to the corporate coffers.

Part of the fun of the movie is that you never know when Whitacre’s lying or telling the truth.

Thursday, September 17, 2009

Maneater

Transformers star Megan Fox has worked hard at making us see her as an unapologetically sexual being – it puts a pep in her step, you know, because she knows and understand that, at this stage in her career, she’s expected to be one.

In the Diablo Cody-written horror-com Jennifer’s Body Fox arguably has found the perfect vehicle to showcase this image.

What shame it is, then, that the movie is so uneven.

Part horror movie, part comedy, Jennifer’s Body left quite a bit to be desired. Cody spoiled us with her hyper-aware and hyper-clever Academy Award-winning script for Juno, so I thought it was hyper-disappointing that this, her follow-up directed by Karyn Kusama (Girlfight, Aeon Flux), wasn’t more quip-happy.

Don’t get me wrong – the movie has its quotes, but they don’t get as pile-high as the body count (which is not that high, either). Also, I thought that, tonally, the movie kinda sorta missed the mark a little bit.

Sidebar: The limited audience with whom I saw Jennifer’s Body earlier this week was a bit of a wet blanket. It made me wonder whether this is a movie that needs to be seen in a more rapturous, fuller theater, or if the crowd simply reflected the low energy on screen.

I thought the movie had its spooks and thrills, most of which were old school (like, a door bell rings – or was it a knock? – and our heroine goes to check…but there’s no one there), and that it was funny, bitingly so at times, but the pace was just draggy.

Jennifer’s Body is a movie made with a softer touch.

It has a female director, a female writer, and Fox’s counterpart is played by Amanda Seyfried (HBO’s Big Love, Mamma Mia!). I cannot help but wonder if years of watching movie in the genre made by men has – oh? – programmed me to expect, say, more in-your-face titillation.

Subtlety, or as much as possible, rules this production, and that’s a welcome change of pace.

So perhaps you will enjoy more thoroughly the story of Fox’s titular character, an alpha female in the small town of Devil’s Kettle, who, after a fateful encounter with a small-time emo band that leaves her possessed by a demon, is propelled to graduate from high school evil to evil evil – and hungry for boys.

Only her BFF, the unfortunately nicknamed Needy (Seyfried), sees Jennifer for what she’s become – and only she can stop her from ravaging through the town’s testosterone-prone.

I – I already saw Jennifer’s Body, and while I would love to check it out again, with an audience that’s more alive and that would distract from Fox’s aggroying Paris Hilton voice affectation, I think I’ll pass. It’s a recession, after all.

I was up bright and early today – like, early – and heard on the radio the audio of the off-the-record part of the interview President Obama gave CNBC on Monday – you know, the one in which he called Kanye West a “jackass” for stealing Taylor Swift’s thunder at the MTV VMAs.

The comment was tweeted, and then deleted, by an ABC reporter.

I cringed as I anticipated how some people would spin this to their advantage: “The POTUS said ‘jackass.’ How unbecoming!” came to mind.

Really, though, to me the most aggroying part of Tweetgate is that not only was the off-the-record remark tweeted, of all things, now the audio’s been leaked. It makes me shudder…and nostalgic for the days of yore.

For realsies.

Once upon a time, “off-the-record” used to mean something, you know, and you wouldn’t follow such a gaffe with another bigger one. Now you have to watch out for any unfamiliar-with-the-concept idiot with a BlackBerry, too.

Like, a writer wouldn’t write “and so-and-so said, off the record…” because that wouldn’t pass muster.

“Patrick Swayze passed away peacefully today with family at his side after facing the challenges of his illness for the last 20 months,” his rep said in a statement.

Swayze’s co-star in The Outsiders and Youngblood, Rob Lowe, said the actor “lived a hundred lifetimes in one. I will remember him for that, and I will remember him for how much he loved his wife Lisa. He definitely made the most out of it.”

As expected, a sure-to-be-a-hot-ticket documentary chronicling the lead-up to the late Michael Jackson’s never-happened “This Is It Tour” is a-comin’ this fall, and its trailer made its debut during last night’s MTV VMAs

Sunday, September 13, 2009

The Queen of Pop is attending the ceremony at Radio City Music Hall in the Big Apple to kinda sorta introduce Janet Jackson, who will open the show with a tribute to the late King of Pop, her brother Michael.

MTV supposedly had wanted M to do the tribute (because who else could), but I hear the Jackson family is very involved with that part of the program and they...suggested that Janet do it.

I’m also hearing that Madonna has put her own stamp on her introduction – nobody tells the Queen what to say, after all – and that part of it will include a little nod to a performer who has influenced many acts working today...a performer, who like her, wanted to rule the world. And then, she won’t ask the audience to give it up for Janet Jackson...not specifically, not by name. As least she is not expected to.

Oh, and ever since it was announced that M will be attending the show, all the other performers have been busy upping the ante. For instance, Lady GaGa’s wetting her leotard preparing “a very Madonna-like performance of ‘Paparazzi.’” And Pink’s gonna get her acrobatics on when she performs...“Sober”?

Photo: FashionTime.hu.

Update 1: Are Shakira and Pink wearing the same dress? Yep. Balmain. Hello!

Interesting: Is Balmain the It designer now that Madonna wore it in her “Celebration” video?

Kanye, you’re an ass. I hope you’re proud of yourself – you probably just made a teenaged girl cry. It’s one thing for you to lose your s--- when you, well...lose, but Beyoncé’s an independent woman. She doesn’t need your help, and she didn’t want it, either.

A--!

Update 5: Suck on that, KW! Taylor Swift rocked two subway stations, not to mention one heckuva subway ride, and showed you why she won. You can apologize now.